Friday, August 31, 2012

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanAug. 31 2012

You might think that a trio consisting of a crazy slide guitarist, his wife on the washboard and his cousin playing a bass drum and junkyard percussion might be little more than a fun little novelty act. But those who have enjoyed the recordings and/or the live shows of The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, know that this group from rural Indiana goes way beyond the novelty spectrum.

“Reverend” Josh Peyton’s gruff vocals and flawless slide guitar; Breezy Peyton’s impeccable washboard and soprano harmonies are a powerful combination. And Aaron Persinger is the Gene Krupa of the plastic bucket. So this tight little band packs a big damn musical punch.

And cementing the deal is the Rev’s impressive lyrical skills, highly evident in the band’s new effort Between the Ditches. He’s not “poetic” in the traditional sense. Nobody’s going to mistake him for Leonard Cohen. He’s closer to Woody Guthrie — Woody Guthrie with crazy rhythm.

Peyton’s songs can be funny, poignant, much like the country bluesmen he emulates. He’s got a knack for taking everyday observations and annoyances — like, say, bugs getting into the house when someone leaves the door open — and turning them into romping, stomping singalongs.

Ditches represents a return to form for the Big Damn Band following last year’s Peyton on Patton, a tribute to Delta blues great Charlie Patton. Although the album was credited to The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, basically it was a Josh Peyton solo album with Mrs. Peyton and Persinger making only minimal contributions. I missed them on that one. But the new record is charged up with all the thump, crunch and rumble of the full band.

This album picks off where Peyton’s last album of original material, 2010’s The Wages, left off. Like that previous effort, Ditches is full of bluesy, populist-themed songs about economic hard times and social decay.

“Shake ‘em Off Like Fleas” — the music of which sounds like “Polk Salad Annie” overdosing on gamma rays — is full of righteous rage against corrupt politicians, soulless corportations and other powers-that-be who rig the game against the rest of us. “A change is coming, a change in store / ‘cause there’s more of us than them and we’ve freed ourselves before,” Peyton sings.

The gentler “We’ll Get Through” definitely is the prettiest song on the album. The narrator of the song has been hit hard by the “tough times and tough timing,” but like Merle Haggard in the song “Someday We’ll Look Back,” he reassures his loved one that it won’t always be so bad

Some of the songs suggests images of displaced workers going down the road feeling bad, seeking better lives but finding mostly “cops and thieves and sons of bitches,” as Peyton growls in the refrain of the title song. In this song, Peyton warns, “The code of the road is take care/ The law can’t protect us out there … The code of the road is to share/ We have only each other out there.”

Meanwhile the song “Move Along Mister” — a slow song with Peyton’s slide evoking early Ry Cooder — is about a late-night confrontation between a worn-out, perhaps vagrant, traveler and an unfriendly cop. “I’m weary and hungry and I ain’t from around here, ” the singer tries to explain.

Other topical songs here include, “Don’t Grind it Down,” a protest against strip mining. In a melody similar to “Wabash cannonball,” Peyton sings, “If we lose our mountain and with it all them trees, I don’t know about you, I think I’d rather freeze.”

Then the Rev preaches against drugs on “The Money Goes” Where does the money go? “Up her nose,” of course. In a later verse he repeats the line “Looks like death” several times before adding, “Might be meth.”

But Peyton and band know how to have good fun too without making serious socio-economic points. “Brokedown Everywhere” is an update of the country classic “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Peyton alludes to that song in the refrain: “You’ve been everywhere / I’ve been broke down there.” Like he the old song, the singer lists several geographical locations, but describing his car troubles in every one. “South of Portland lost a wheel/ New York City broke the seal/ Nevada an alternator/ Memphis a radiator … “

For those already familiar with the band, there aren’t that many musical surprises on Between the Ditches — except perhaps the sweet mandolin in “Don’t Grind it Down.” Yet somehow on their seventh album, they’re only getting better. This just might be their best work yet.

Here’s something to look forward to: The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is scheduled to play at Sol Santa Fe on Nov. 16. Mark your calendar.

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins by The Byrds
Jet Boy by New York Dolls
Telstar by The Tornados
Wiggy Waggy Woo by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Mojo Man From Mars by The Cramps
Punk With Gretches by The 99ers
Torture by King Khan & The Shrines
We Repel Each Other by The Reigning Sound
Goin' Down by The Monkees

Drunk Stripper by Bob Log III
White Lightning by Doo Rag
Nice Guys Finish Last by The Electric Mess
Gut Feeling, Slap Your Mammy by Devo
Club Mekon by The Mekons
30 Minute Love by The Terrorists
Pepper Spray by Light Bulb Alley
Everybody's Doing It by The Black Lips
Shut the Screen by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Tone Deaf by The Angel Babies (playing Albuquerque and Santa Fe next weekend.)
U Bug Me by Modey Lemon
G.G. Allen Died Last Night by Mike Edison
When I Were Young by Memphis Slim & Canned Heat
Somebody Stop the Bleedin' by Houndog
Rag Doll by The Four Seasons
Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Foot Stompin' Friday Night by The Stumbleweeds
All the Way From Abilene by The Ex Husbands
Honky Tonkin' by Maddox Brothers & Rose
Whiskey in the Jar by Hazeldine
Something for Nothing by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Little But I'm Loud by Rosie Flores
Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets by Johnny Paycheck
The Bull and The Beaver by Rick Shea & Patty Booker
Sadie Was a Lady by Johnny Bond

Waiting at the Turnpike by Dad Horse Experience
Girl Called Trouble by The Watzloves
John Hardy by The 69ers
Fenry Wolf by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
1957 Ford Meteor by Menic
When the Police Came by Mama Rosin
Leaving Now by The Salty Pajamas
Blue Moon of Kentucky by Rev. Beat-Man
They Call Me Country by DM Bob & The Deficits

Fraulein by Jim Dickinson
Mr. Spaceman by Mystic Lizard
Long Lonely Road by Honky Tonk Hustlas
Whine de Lune by Trailer Bride
Cold and Blind by Possessed by Paul James
Tall Buildings by Soda Gardocki
Diggy Liggy Lo by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanAug. 24, 2012

A few decades ago I was talking to a musician friend who had just come back from a trip to Ireland. He’d gone there, he said, to learn more about traditional Irish music.

However, once he got there he realized that the Irish musicians he met weren’t all that into Irish music. Instead, my friend said, they far more interested in learning from him about the music of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard.

Indeed, lots of Europeans eat up American country and folk music. And lots of those people actually make such music, often with interesting results. Here’s a look at some recent European alternative country CDs I’ve acquired.

* The Dad Horse Experience XXL Live In Melbourne. Dad Horse Ottn — don’t ask me where the name “Dad Horse” comes from — is a German banjo picker who bills himself as a gospel singer. “Keller-Gospel” is what he calls his brand of music, “keller” being the German word for basement.

As Ottn explains in the introduction to one of the songs on album, he makes gospel music not meant to be played in churches, but in “the dark basements, the rooms your parents used to send you when you did wrong, where it’s cold and wet and really dark, so the light is needed.”

And indeed, while he doesn’t come on like some pious evangelist, and he’s not above using a little profanity when needed, Dad Horse’s songs deal with religious and spiritual struggles. In this respect, he reminds me of the Colorado band Slim Cessna’s Auto Club.

Ottn normally plays as simply The Dad Horse Experience, a one-man band, with his banjo, bass pedal, and sometimes mandolin and kazoo. But on his Australian tour last year, he picked up a guitarist and drummer — and, as Giant Sand recently did with “Giant Giant Sand” — he altered the name of the band, adding “XXL.”

In his heavy German accent, Ottn sings some familiar American tunes like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway,” and “St. James Infirmary Blues.” But more interesting are his originals. Had he been well-known in the U.S. 10 years ago, his “WTC in Heaven” would have been as controversial as Steve Earle’s “John Walker’s Blues.”

With a melody similar to “St. James Infirmary,” Ottn sings, “Well, some said that it was Mohammad Atta/And some said that it was the CIA/Well, I asked myself, where was Jesus?/Three thousand were killed that day.”

Then in the last verse, he sings ‘Well, I walked through the clouds, glanced, and wondered about/All the walls they like glooming black gold/And the traders are trading as they ever used to do/Now in heaven they’re trading their own soul.”

Though most of his songs about sin and salvation sound serious, Dad Horse has a wicked sense of humor. The best example of this is the song “Lord Must Fix My Soul,” in which the singer confesses to his past sins. Unfortunately, in this live setting, Ottn interrupts the flow of the song too often with his stage patter. It’s worth seeking out the studio version on the 2008 album Too Close to Heaven.

The album ends with the only real rocker on it, “I’m Not Here Anymore,” which gives the XXL part of the act a chance to earn their keep. The lyrics here aren’t especially spiritual, but your soul will feel uplifted.

* Salty Pajamas. This self-titled album boasts some country-flavored craziness from Germany, which, like the Dad Horse CD, was sent to me by the German company Off Label Records (a dynamic little outfit that is also responsible for albums by DM Bob & The Deficits and the Brazilian one-man band O Lendário Chucrobillyman). This is a trio, featuring guitar, banjo, and drums, plus other various instruments as needed. Singer Jonas Hauter sings through an old CB radio microphone.

The first song, “Meat Country,” is a country stomper with a melody that lilts toward childlike The Incredible String Band/Neutral Milk Hotel territory. The instrumental section almost sounds like raga rock played on banjo. The banjo is out in front on the minor-key “Leaving Now” and the upbeat “Alligators,” while “Monsters Undur Bed” and “Dead Pirate Song” are lo-fi folk rock (I almost can hear Neil Young singing the latter). And the melody of “The Taste of Tea,” an ode to marijuana, reminds me in a funny way of “Achy Breaky Heart.”

The Pajamas show a garage-rock influence on guitar-centric songs like “Spell,” “Wooden Friendship, ” and “Alliene,” which might make the ears of Yardbirds fans perk up.

* Railroad Blues Anthology by Menic. O.K. , I’m cheating here, a little. The man called Menic lives in Switzerland. He’s played fiddle for Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers, and this album is released by the Swiss Voodoo Rhythm label. But he’s actually from near Boston. So technically, it’s not 100-percent European.

The first thing that struck me about this record is how tame it is compared with other Voodoo Rhythm products. There’s far less screaming, slop, tomfoolery, and twistedness than you’ll find on most albums from the label, which has the motto “Records to Ruin Any Party.” In fact, songs here sound a lot closer to those of James Taylor than to the music of Zeno Tornado or Reverend Beat-Man.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of good stuff here. Stripped-down, stomping folk-blues numbers like “Shake My Bones” and “She Made Me” are tasty, and the banjo-driven “Jack Rabbit” is lightweight but sticks to your ears. Best of all is the rockabilly-infused “1957 Ford Meteor.” Actually, I wish the whole album sounded like this one.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Lord, I hope not, but this article in the Free Music Archive blog makes a good argument that the MP3 blog has seen it's day -- thanks partly to the evil Recording Industry Association of America and federal law enforcement.

The article, by Casey Rice, brings up cases in which music blogs have gotten in trouble by posting MP3s sent to them by record label publicists.

I didn't get seriously riled until I came to this paragraph:

MP3 blogs have also come under fire from law enforcement. Take for example, the hip-hop site Dajaz1, which was seized by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division at the prompting of the RIAA. Dajaz1 is exactly the kind of blog that is serviced by major label promotions departments, yet it found itself in the crosshairs of government enforcers with little understanding of the contemporary music industry and the tastemakers who help power it. How is it possible that the labels’ legal guns have no clue what its promotional division is up to? How can Homeland Security shutter a site for an entire year with no apparent recourse? Few would argue that seizing sites that traffic in illegal pharmaceuticals or tainted baby formula isn't a good thing, but there are serious issues raised when the US government suppresses speech on the mere accusation of infringement. Policies to combat commercial piracy are one thing. The haphazard shutdown of blogs that exist to expose people to new music, and which receive countless MP3s from the major labels, is another. It’s easy to imagine this kind of overreach contributing to a decline in MP3 blogs — is a tussle with the G-men really worth it?

Have I told you lately how much I hate the RIAA?

And what's with Homeland Security doing their bidding? Is some hip-hop blog really a serious security threat?

This site, in its eight years of existence, has not been primarily an MP3 blog, though I often post both stream and downloadable music. And I'll keep doing it until Homeland Security drags me away.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Here's a new single from the recently convicted Russian punk band Pussy Riot. "it's called "Putin Lights Up the Fires."

Three members of the band last week were found guilty of "hooliganism driven by religious hatred" and sentenced to two years in jail for filming a video in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior earlier this year.

The more arrests, the happier it is.
Every arrest is carried out with love for the sexist

Who botoxed his cheeks and pumped his chest and abs.

But you can't nail us in the coffin.
Throw off the yoke of former KGB!

Putin is lighting the fires of revolution
He's bored and scared of sharing silence with the people
With every execution: the stench of rotten ash
With every long sentence: a wet dream

The country is going, the country is going into the streets boldly
The country is going, the country is going to bid farewell to the regime
The country is going, the country is going, like a feminist wedge
And Putin is going, Putin is going to say goodbye like a sheep

Arrest the whole city for May 6th
Seven years isn't enough, give us 18!
Forbid us to scream, walk and curse!
Go and marry Father Lukashenko

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Shake 'em Off Like Fleas by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Lightnin's Girl by Lydia Lunch
European Girls by BBQ
CCCP by The Hydes
Adolescent Wet Dream by Pussy Galore
The Freak Was Clean by The Oh-Sees
Trouble Everywhere I Go by Memphis Slim & Canned Heat
Hodad Makin' the Scene with a 6 Pack by The Silly Surfers

Get Your Hat by Don & Dewy
Do You Swing? by The Fleshtones
Deserted Town by The Movements
Gimme Gimme Gimme by Figures of Light
I Love You Peggy by Butthole Surfers
Take Your Clothes Off by Wayne Kramer
The Devil's Chasing Me by Rev. Horton Heat
Lilly's 11th by The Nevermores
13 Men by Ann-Margret

Love Buzz by Nirvana
Psycho Lover by The Things
Crane's Cafe by TAD
Rolling Stone by The Immortal Lee Country Killers
I Hate the Blues by Dead Moon
High Noon Blues by The Night Beats
Hammer I Miss You by Jay Reatard

Break the Spell by Gogol Bordello
If You Want to Go, Go by Kult
Little Red Rooster by Sam Cooke
Talking at the Same Time by Tom Waits
Dark Age Tail Spin by Dan Melchior
Borracho by Mark Lannegan
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Swampblood by Legendary Shack Shakers
Cheap Hotels by Southern Culture on the Skids
Dirty Old Town by Frank Black
Tell Me by The Texas Tornados
Backstreets of Town by Husky Burnette
Red Badge of Courage by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Rockin' Dog by Ronnie Dawson
Honky Tonk Man by Johnny Horton
Turnip Greens by South Memphis String Band

St. James Infirmary by Dad Horse Experience
Out on the Barge by Al Duvall
Blue Days, Black Nights by Mystic Lizard
I Wish I Was Back in Las Vegas by Stevie Tombstone
Ghost in My Boot by Johnny Foodstamp
My Religion's Not Old Fashioned (But It's Real Genuine) by Hank Snow
I Wonder by Paula Rhea McDonald
The Girl on Death Row by T.Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Rip This Joint by The Rebel Surfers

Cornbread 'Lasses (And Sassafrass Tea) by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Missouri Girl by Big Sandy & The Fly Rite Trio
Christian Life by The Byrds
Nobody to Love by The World Famous Headliners
Barefoot on the Courthouse Lawn by The Coal Porters
Hold My Head by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Note:This week's Terrell's Tuneup got held because of so much stuff from Santa Fe Indian Market. (Please don't cancel your subscription!) So instead I'll run my monthly eMusic reviews, which I was going to post this weekend anyway, now.

* 100 Cash Poor Blues by Various Artists. Collections like this is why I love eMusic. 100 tracks, nearly five hours of music, for $5.84.

But the overriding themes of all -- well most -- of the 100 songs is money -- or the lack thereof. That's been one of the major themes of the blues since Day One. "I'm broke and I ain't got a dime," Blind Willie McTell sings in "Last Dime Blues." He sounds like he knows what he's talking about..

Both Gus Cannon and Barbecue Bob sing versions of "Poor Boy, Long Ways From Home" Different arrangements, some different lyrics, but they both come from the same place of the spirit. Same with "Broke and Hungry Blues." One version here was recorded in 1929 by Peg Leg Howell (and an unknown fiddler), while another is a 1947 take by blues pianist Big Maceo Merriweather (with his pal Tampa Red on guitar.)

Not all is desperation here though. Even the above songs have and underlying humor. And Big Bill Broonzy even makes joblessness sound kind of fun in his late '30s "Unemployment Stomp." (featuring an irresistible trumpet by aa guy named Punch Miller) And I'm not even sure what the risque "Sales Lady" by Casey Bill Weldon is even doing on this collection, but it sure is fun.

Some highlights here include The Harlem Hamfats' "Weed Smoker's Dream," a 1936 song that eventually evolved into "Why Don't You Do Right?"; Slim Harpo's "I Need Money ("Keep Your Alibis"); "Price of Cotton Blues" by The Allen Brothers (one of, if not the only white act here. There's a snazzy kazoo on this tune that makes it sound like a jug band song); "Lightning Struck the Poorhouse," a jazzy tune by someone called Cousin Joe; and "Working Man Blues," where Lonnie Johnson complains about hard working Joes like himself wearing themselves out "while the pimps have all the fun."

This is Sandy's first album, originally released back in 1990. But the singer born Robert Williams has stayed true to this basic western-swing influenced rockabilly sound -- with R&B and Latin overtones.

And in fact, Sandy and the Fly Rite Boys still perform some of these songs. They did "Hot Water" at Santa Fe Sol, and maybe even some of the others.

As is the case with his current band, Sandy's trio here performed flawlessly on this album. But, agasin just like now, the main draw is Sandy's high, smooth vocals. Sure he'll let out some screams in rockers like "Baby You Done Gone, but the man knows how to croon.

* Always Say Please and Thank You by Slim Cessna's Auto Club. Why are they called "Slim Cessna's Auto Club?" Because another group already had the name "Bad Religion."
Indeed, strange religious obsessions and spiritual yearnings, not all of them healthy, dominate Cessna's material on this, the group's second album, just like their most recent album, last year's Unentitled.
In Cessna World, almost everything is seen through lenses of sin and salvation. The very first words on the album, after about 20 seconds of circus-waltz pumping on an accordion and a little doo-wop vocal action , are "Wash all my sins away / I'm down on my knees to pray ..." But before the end of the first verse you realize that the song "In My Arms Once Again" actually is about a woman.

Cessna finds spiritual wisdom in unlikely place from unlikely sources. In "Viceroy Filter Kings, a good honky tonk stomper with a rightfully obnoxious steel guitar, Cessna sings of an old man he meets in a bar, talking and crying about his wicked past. But the old drunk codger relays some reassuring advice: "I ain't a Catholic, I ain't a Protestant, I ain't a Jew. You know sweet Jesus He died, He died for my sins and He'll die for yours too."

There's another barroom encounter in "Last Song About Satan." Guess who Slim meets here ... "Lucifer you piece of shit, I should kick your ass right where you sit,"

The album climaxes with "Hold My Head" a lengthy saga that starts out as some kind of parable, and ends with six minutes of a jubilant repetition of the band singing "Hold, hold my head ..."

Jesus loves this band.

* Night Beats This is a band I discovered when fooling around on eMusic one night checking out some of the stuff the site had recommended for me. About 75 percent of the stuff eMusic "personally recommends" for me is mediocre and about 24 percent is raw crap. But this album is part of that glorious one percent that makes me happy.

This trio specializes in a garagey, quasi psychedelic guitar/bass/drums sound. They're from Seattle. (What could possibly go wrong?) but their hearts are in the Texas/Haight Ashbury sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators. The Night Beats song "Useless Game," for example owes much to The Elevators' "Earthquake." And speaking of Texas, they've recently toured with The Black Angels.

Most of their songs are in the two to three minute range, though they stretch out on couple of tunes, such as "The Other Side" which slows down a couple of times for, smokey Spanish-flavored instrumental sections But my favorites are the first two tracks, the loud, brash and snotty "Puppet on a String," (no not the Elvis song from the Girl Happy soundtrack), which is followed by "Ain't Dumbo," which has echoes of The Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction."
Bonus! Here's a WFMU radio appearance by Night Beats from earlier this year. (Courtesy Free Music Archive.)

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Here's one I'm going to cross post on my politics blog and my music blog.

This is a new song from Devo, the pride of Akron, Ohio, inspired by the plight of Mitt Romney's dog.

Meanwhile, from the right, almost all the songs from Hank Williams, Jr.'s new album, Old School, New Rules sound like Sean Hannity could have written the lyrics. Here's one that features samples of Hank's dad.

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Rain Came by Sir Douglas Quintet
The Girl With the Exploding Dress by The Electric Mess
Shallow Grave by The Nevermores
Daddy Rolling Stone by The Blasters
Working Girl by Strawberry Zots
Hey Joe by The Leaves
Drug Thru the Mud by Joe "King" Carrasco
Comme L'Agent Secret by The Cool Jerks

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. by West Hell 5
Journey to the Center of the Mind by The Ramones
The Crusher by The Cramps
Shakin' All Over by Lolita #18
Where Were You by The Mekons
Pig Sweat by Pussy Galore
Rock and Shock by Screaming Lord Sutch
Shoe Factory by Gas Huffer
Wide Open Blues by Big John Bates
Troubled Mind by The Buff Medways
Sales Lady by Casey Bill Weldon

Butterfly Stroke by Mudhoney
Secret Meat by Pong
Lockdown Blues by The Angel Babies
All Fired Up, All Shook Down by Houndog
Let Me Down Easy by Bettye Lavette
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Travel On by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Take Me Back by The World Famous Headliners
Too Drunk to Truck by The Sixtyniners
Get Me a Job by The Riptones
The Cold Hard Facts of Life by T. Tex Edwards
Is Anyone Going to San Antone by Charlie Pride
Cookin' Chicken 1999 by Hasil Adkins

Cocaine Blues by Shooter Jennings & Amy Nelson
Bald Headed End of the Broom by June Carter
Crazy Boogie by Merle Travis
Here Lies a Good Old Boy by James "Slim" Chance
Patrick by The Misery Jackals
Waiting Around to Die by The Goddamn Gallows
Cherokee Boogie by Hank Williams
Crazy Love by Menic
Rainmaker by Tusker (featuring Eliza Gilkyson)
Looks Like I Killed Again by Slackeye Slim

A Girl in the Night by Ray Price
Out Past Abilene by Cornell Hurd
Then I'll Be Movin' On by Mother Earth (featuring Powell St. John)
St. James Infirmary by Dad Horse Experience
Shake Sugaree by David Bromberg
Someday We'll Look Back by Merle Haggard
One of the Unsatisfied by Lacy J. Dalton
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

I’ll admit, I probably spend far more time listening to music on my computer than most people my age — way too much time looking for ways to listen to the music of the bands I like.

For the past six or seven year, I’ve written about some of my favorite music sites in this column. Music blogs and websites seem to come and go. But while recently listening to a 1970 Frank Zappa concert on Wolfgang’s Vault, I realized that many of the sites I’ve raved about on these pages are still up and running after all these years.

Here’s a look at some some those fine places that have hours (days, weeks, years) of music just waiting for your years.

* Live Music Archive This treasure trove is part of The Internet Archive, a nonprofit that started in San Francisco in 1996. The stated goal of the Live Music section is “to preserve and archive as many live concerts as possible for current and future generations to enjoy.” In recent years, the site has teamed up with www.etree.org, an online community of live-music recording enthusiasts.

When I first wrote about Live Music Archive in 2006, there were about 30,000 recordings of free concerts available for downloading from artists who either posted shows themselves or gave their blessings to fans to do so. Today there are more than 105,000 recordings, with more than 1,000 new ones coming in each month. As was the case in 2006, the vast majority of the 5,300-plus musical acts represented here are kind of obscure, although you can find some pretty sharp needles in this haystack.

Live Music Archive is nirvana for Grateful Dead fans — though it’s pretty dead for Nirvana fans. There are currently more than 8,000 Dead shows posted. Granted, some are duplicates. Last time I looked, there were seven recordings of the band’s last show — July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

These days, the concert pages have handy, dandy jukebox widgets, so you can listen to the show right there. And you can embed it on your own blog or website. The MP3s offered on the site are pretty low-fi, but there are some other fancier formats like FLAC (free lossless audio codec) for the audiophiles.

Some of the posted concerts I’ve been enjoying recently include Scott H. Biram, The Bell Rays, Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Wayne Hancock. Disappointingly, I haven’t spotted any current Santa Fe bands here, though former Santa Fean Nathan Moore, formerly of ThaMuseMeant, has posted 33 shows, the most recent from late July.

*The Free Music ArchiveLike the Live Music Archive, this site is a huge and ever-growing library of free and legal downloads of independent artists who allow their music to be posted there. There are thousands of tracks that you can stream as well as download. You can build your own playlists. You can embed. And the sound quality here tends to be better than on the Live Music Archive’s MP3s.

This was started by WFMU, an amazing radio station in Jersey City. WFMU is, by far, the biggest supplier of material, although other stations, music venues, independent labels, and individual artists have also contributed tracks here.

Most of my favorites are from live performances at WFMU’s studios. These include sets by The A-Bones, Reigning Sound, Ty Segall, Dan Melchior, The Electric Mess, and The Fat Possum Blues Caravan (featuring T. Model Ford, the late Paul “Wine” Jones, and Kenny Brown).

Late last year, Barrence Whitfield and The Savages, featuring Peter Greenberg of Taos on guitar, played the Cherry Blossom Clinic show on WFMU. That performance was posted on the Free Music Archive shortly after.

My latest discovery, just posted, is a 10-track sampler calledThe Lost Devilcore Hits of Severed Lips Recordings. Severed Lips was a cassette-only “company” started by a couple of 19-year-old horror-movie and punk-rock fans from Ringwood, New Jersey, in the early ’90s. These were home recordings by bands — mainly friends of Severed Lips moguls William Hellfire and Scott Beattie — like Disco Missile, Dynomite Cat, Armageddon Gospel Revival, and Alien Pornography. Hellfire best describes the music as “noisy and fuzzy caricatures of psychedelic punk rock.”

* Wolfgang’s Vault: When I first wrote about this site in 2007, I warned readers to “enjoy it while you can,” because at the time the site was being sued for alleged copyright violations by representatives of several bands including Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Santana, and the Doors, whose music was being streamed there . “In most such cases, the music industry wins and cool music websites lose,” I moaned. That’s usually true, but I was wrong. Wolfgang’s still stands.

Unlike the Live Music Archive and the Free Music Archive, Wolfgang’s Vault is a commercial site. It has free streaming recordings of complete concerts going back to the ’60s and some videos you can watch for free. But the site also sells downloads of certain shows as well as old posters, T-shirts, and other music merchandise. The site specializes in the lost treasures of the late Wolfgang Grajonca, better known as Bill Graham, the rock promoter best known for The Fillmores West and East.

And though Wolfgang’s no longer streams Led Zep or The Doors, the collection of concerts keeps growing. There are lots of old blues artists like Big Mama Thornton, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Mississippi John Hurt, and Muddy Waters; proto punks like The MC5, The Flamin’ Groovies; and late-’70s and early-’80s punk and New Wave shows from The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Devo, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, and Talking Heads.

Unlike the other sites mentioned here, Wolfgang’s has iPhone and Android apps, so you can listen to all your favorite concerts wherever you go.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Here's full versions of all the songs from Picnic Time For Potatoheads & Best-Loved Songs from Pandemonium Jukebox via Soundcloud.

First, Potatoheads ...

Game of Thrones fans should check out "Rock and Roll Hell" below if you want to hear George R.R. Martin repeatedly calling me an "asshole." (This, as all Pandemonium Jukebox songs was recorded at Tom Dillon's house in Santa Fe circa 1983. Tom played steel guitar and co-produced the cassette only album.)

These Soundcloud players will have a permanent home on this blog's "My Own Music" page.
And yes, you freeloaders, all these songs are for sale at CD Baby and other fine establishments.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Jesus' Chariot by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Mas y Mas by Los Lobos
Comin' After Me by The Flamin' Groovies
The Doorway by Pierced Arrows
Long Green by L7
Back In Hell by The Reverend Beat-Man & The Un-Believers
I'm Waiting by The Nevermores
Bad Neighborhood by Mac Rebennack

Call the Zoo by The A-Bones
Man Taken from Guts by Thee Mighty Caesars
California Swamp Dance by Kim Fowley
Ain't Dumbo by The Night Beats
Oh Mary by Ty Segall
We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together by The Velvet Underground
It's Great by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!!
English Civil War by The Clash
Georgia Slop by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Tell Me You Love Me by Frank Zappa
Rock Bottom by The Rams

Vamos a Matar El Chango by Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns
I Hear an Echo by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Woo by Gibby Haynes
Gravity by Buick MacKane
Red River Street by The Angel Babies
Tyger by Arrington de Dionyso and the Old Time Relijun
Bubble City by Pong
National Hamster by The Melvins

Get Happy by Simon Stokes
Levitation by 13th Floor Elevators
Head by 60 Noses
The 5th by Kustomized
Lightning Struck the Poorhouse by Cousin Joe
Codine by James Luther Dickinson
A Very Good Year by Jackie "Teak" Lazar
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

Welcome to the new hillbilly episode of The Big Enchilada podcast. To paraphrase Johnny Hicks in the opening song here, we're going to get some kicks from the hicks way back in the sticks. Besides the twisted honky-tonk and hopped-up hillbilly sounds you've come to expect from these shows, Kicks from the Sticks also includes a set of old-time string band, jug band and country blues songs inspired by the latest South Memphis String Band album ...Old Times There.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New MexicanAug. 3, 2012

Seeing Joe “King” Carrasco & The Crowns— the
original Crowns, by golly! — kicking off the Santa Fe Bandstand series
in July brought back a lot of memories from 30 years ago. But their
performance that night, as well as Que Wow, the new CD I bought after the show, was not mere nostalgia. Carrasco’s music is as timeless as it is fun.

Back
in the day — the early 1980s to be exact — the group called this sound
Nuevo Wavo.

Carrasco and the band seemed to come out of nowhere right
about the time New Wave was starting to fade. Elvis Costello had
repopularized the Farfisa/Vox organ sound a few years before (on his
album This Year’s Model), but Carrasco, keyboardist Chris
Cummings, and the others took it further, creating spirited music that
sounded like a joyful blend of The B-52s and Question Mark & The
Mysterians.

Carrasco was just a gringo loco (born Joseph Teutsch in
Dumas, Texas), but his love for Tex-Mex music and Chicano rock in
general propelled his Nuevo Wavo sound.

Carrasco and The Crowns seemed to be everywhere for a brief moment. They played “Don’t Bug Me Baby” on Saturday Night Live. Later, “Party Weekend” became a staple on MTV. Carrasco was interviewed in Rolling Stone. After a chance meeting at a recording studio, he did a duet with (pre-Thriller)
Michael Jackson.

And for a few years it seemed he was at Club West in
Santa Fe at least every few months. He was the one of the first national
acts, if not the very first, to play there, treating local folks to his
crazed, high-energy, hopped-up, crowd-surfing, wall-crawling antics in a
stage show that was part James Brown, part Sam the Sham, and part
Spider-Man.

Truth is, Carrasco and The Crowns became more of a regional
phenomenon. Here in the Southwest, we still loved them long after the
trendies and the mainstream forgot about them.

But at some point
Carrasco’s Santa Fe appearances became more and more infrequent. It
seemed as if he dropped off the face of the earth.

Actually, he moved to
Mexico, where he established a home base in a Tex-Mex restaurant/bar in
Puerto Vallarta called Nacho Daddy. That’s also the name of one of the
songs on Que Wow. (No, this bouncy ranchero featuring Carrasco’s dogs barking in the background is not an advertisement for the restaurant.)

Carrasco
started getting a little political in the mid ’80s with songs like “Who
Buys the Guns” (“that killed the nuns” completed that couplet; he lived
in Nicaragua for a while during that period). But a quarter century
later, if there’s any trace of politics on the new album, it’s so subtle
that I missed it.

A snappy little rocker called “Drug Through the Mud” opens and closes Que Wow,
the final version being a live one. Cummings’ electric organ plays
riffs straight off of “96 Tears” (Carrasco name-checks the Question Mark
hit in the lyrics). Meanwhile, another one of Carrasco’s chief
influences, the Sir Douglas Quintet, is righteously evoked in (at least)
a couple of other songs, “Havin’ a Ball” and the bilingual “Yo Soy
Tuyo.”

There’s an irresistible little polka called “Right On
Catcheton”; a Caribbean-flavored, Tiki-touched groover called “Vamos a
Matar El Chango”; and a sweet ode to Carrasco’s dog, “My Lil Anna.”

Carrasco reached back into his songbook for a couple of tunes here. Both
“Bandido Rock” and “Pachuco Hop” have appeared on previous albums, but
both are excellent tunes that deserve to be heard again. (On YouTube,
thanks to Santa Fe Music Video, you can find a good quality video of
“Bandido Rock” from the band’s appearance on the Plaza last month.)

If
you dug Carrasco’s show on the bandstand (or his subsequent shows in
Los Alamos, Taos, or Albuquerque), or if you missed him this time but
have great memories of his Club West performances, I’d bet you’d love Que Wow.

Also recommended:

* The Angel Babies.
This is a band with New Mexico roots that rose out of a rough night of
karaoke.

As the band explains in its official bio, one night last year
Frankie Medina and Calida Salazar were hanging at a “rough karaoke bar”
at an unnamed location in New Mexico, when “suddenly a ex-con/pachuco
took the stage and blew them away with his kitschy performance of ‘Billy
Jean.’ ” The tough-guy crooner became violent, the story goes, when he
insisted that the song “Angel Baby” — which some refer to as the
national anthem of the South Valley — be cued up for his next number.

“Unfortunately he was arrested,” the band’s bio says. But, inspired by
this experience, Medina and Salazar decided they wanted to make music
together as The Angel Babies.

Medina is a New Mexico native, born
in Santa Fe and raised in Española. I first became aware of him in the
late ’90s through his band Electricoolade, a cool little two-man show
that played a potent blend of power-pop and garage rock. After that, he
moved to Austin, forming a band called The Kill Spectors before The
Angel Babies took wing.

This self-titled album is a real sonic
pleasure. It starts off with what sounds like a Mexican folk song, with
Medina singing and playing acoustic guitar. But this song lasts only a
little more than a minute before a big throbbing electric fuzz bass riff
comes in, then some thunder drums on “Tone Deaf.”

When the guitar joins
in, the song sounds like a slowed-down Canned Heat boogie, except way
more ominous. Medina and Salazar’s harmonies here remind me of another
Austin couple from a previous era — Timbuk3.

What I like about the
The Angel Babies is that while they aren’t shy about using synthesized
sounds, they’re a rock ‘n’ roll group at heart. “Drugs Guns Hookers” and
the more upbeat “Red River Street” are upstanding examples of good
trashy rock ‘n’ roll performed through an electronic filter, while
“After the Party” sounds like a long-lost Prince song, perhaps from the Sign ‘O’ the Times
era.

The album ends with a song, sung by Salazar, called “Angel Baby.”
It’s not the same song that the guy at the karaoke bar wanted. It’s as
pretty as it is dark.

Big Enchilada Souvenirs

Just So Ya Know ...

This site is a personal publication independent of my professional capacity at the Santa Fe New Mexican.The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Santa Fe New Mexican or santafenewmexican.com (Same goes for KSFR. Don't blame them for anything weird I might post here.)